Minorities in cartoons: “Stoked”

This week’s minorities in cartoons entry is “Stoked,” a Canadian animated series that aired from 2009 to 2013 on Teletoon (in Canada) and Cartoon Network (in the US).

Background

The series revolves around a group of six teens, who’re all surfing fans. As such, they’re all working at a summer resort at the fictional Surfer’s Paradise Hotel in British Columbia, a major west coast surfing spot.

They’re all hoping to enjoy their first big summer away from home and getting in as much surfing and fun as possible. This is despite the demands of their jobs, annoying bosses, and obnoxious guests and secondary characters. There’s also the run-down, filthy employee housing they’re all forced to stay in.

Cast

The cast of teens include:

“Reef”: a fairly vain, self-confident surf instructor.

Fin McCloud: a surfing enthusiast who, despite her being as skilled at surfing as Fin, is stuck working as a maid at the hotel.

Emma: a girl from Calgary who, growing up far from the coast, had never surfed until going out west. Emma works as a hotel waitress.

Broseph: a stereotypical laid-back surfer dude with very large hair that he stores things in a la Marge Simpson.

Lauren “Lo” Ridgemount: the spoiled daughter of the resort’s owner, an extremely wild party caused Lo’s father to punish her by making her work at the hotel like the rest of the teenage staff, as well as stay in the employee housing instead of her usual penthouse apartment. Lo’s goal has been getting back into her father’s good graces, though she also makes friends with the others.

Johnny: the oldest and most experienced employee of the group, Johnny’s an African-Canadian employee who works at the hotel’s front desk.

If the above cast sound familiar, it might be because the producers of this series also produced the 2000s series “6Teen.” That might explain this series’ similar elements and characters. (Very broadly speaking, Reef = Jonesy, Fin = Nikki, Emma = Jen, Broseph = Jude, Lo = Caitlin, and Johnny = Wyatt, with the resort replacing the Galleria Mall.) That said, the show doesn’t seem set in the same universe as “6Teen” as far as I know.

On TV/home video

The series ran on Teletoon for 52 episodes, all (similar to “Gravity Falls“) somehow taking place over the course of a single very long summer.

Here stateside, “Stoked” didn’t have as long or successful a run as even “6Teen” (which hopped a few networks here). It aired briefly during its first season on Cartoon Network before basically vanishing. However, the entire series is available on Hulu.

The first season of 26 episodes is also available on DVD.

Voice actors

Mazin Elsadig voiced Broseph. Elsadig is an actor who’s appeared in “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”